This Story Bites
Asteroid Damocles Asteroid Damocles is a medium-sized rocky/metallic mix asteroid. It is in a thoroughly boring, unfrequented patch of space and contains no interesting or useful elements that would really be worth mining. There are a few reasonably flat stretches on it. Contents: Breakdown Carjack Slugfest Scorn Starfighter F-35B Lightning II exposits, like any cartoon character, //Asteroid Damocles is located real near Monacus and Cambria, which means that a lot of the shuttle pilots aren't really... paying attention, let's say.// Remember, kiddoes, don't drink and pilot! //So there's a ton of derelicts smashed into Damocles just waiting to be salvaged, perfect spare parts for the Hellbender!// She comes in on a close pass on the asteroid and lands on the surface, near a deep, dark cave. The shadows on the asteroid are stark, crisp-edged, and long. The other non-spacer Decepticons likely have a shuttle, which is probably landing nearby right about now, so they can disembark. Slugfest is perched on a seat up front in said shuttle, his little feets on the console. He's peering out the front viewscreen. "Ooooh," he says, "Get to saw into derelicts? That be fun! Um, what we looking for again?" The little stegotape jumps down onto the floor when the Shuttle lands, prancing down the ramp when it slides out. "Ooooh, maybe we'll find some -corpses- as well then!" Carjack chirruped back, sounding more cheerful than he has in weeks. While technically along because salvage was one of his specialities, frankly he was just damn glad to finally get some time outside of the repair shops. Well that and to keep an optic on the functionality of his 'creation'. Needless to say, he's down the ramp and off the shuttle almost as soon as the hatch is open. "Ehehehehe. My circuits are atingle with anticipation!" Being a spaceship himself, Cyclonus follows the convoy and Contrail.. mainly keeping to himself and silent along the way. Not only because retrofitting the Hellbender is -still- a sore subject for him, but he's still a bit miffed about the sudden emergence of this new Decepticon. The inquisitive nature soon passes however, when they approach the asteroid cluster and perform the routine landing. Scorn ends up following the other Cons out once the shuttle land, the femme stretching out and fluttering her insectoid wings tiredly. "Mmf.. Well, that trip was longer than expected. Both antennas twitch as she turns yellow gaze to the rest, wondering who had the checklist. "Now exactly which parts are we looking for?" Carjack's mention of corpses makes her attention shift, though. "Heh, well if there's survivors, I call 'em. Haven't gotten to my rations yet today..." Yellow optics narrow as she grins wickedly, now starting to hope there WERE survivors. Breakdown is next out the door of the shuttle. "You people aren't being careful enough!" he says with a quavering voice. "This area of space is infested with pirates, and they don't make exceptions for scavengers! And that's not taking into account the possibility somebody might crash into this asteroid while we're standing on it! Primus..." His face betrays his steadily rising terror. "...we'd never see it coming!" F-35B Lightning II transforms and stretches a bit, moving a bit stiffly and awkwardly, quite like someone who has just been reformatted with an Earth mode and isn't quite used to it yet, if someone were to pay careful attention to how she's moving. She turns on her running lights and shines them down at the cavern. There's the glint of metal in the dark, the promising silhouettes of spacecrafts. Contrail calls to the others, "Looks like a good place to start! As for our shopping list, so to speak, isn't that up to you, Doc?" She glances over at Carjack for a moment, her expression slightly strained. Then, Contrail laughs and adds, "But if there's any survivors, I assume they're fair game for /whatever/ game you're playing, Insecticon. I didn't catch your name. I'm Contrail." Ignoring Breakdown's protests, she presses into the mouth of the cavern. Sure are a lot of sharp stalactites and stalagmites in here... In a transformation that is harder than it looks, Contrail rises up into robot mode. Slugfest runs around underfoot. He'll let everybody else do the actual searching, though if he's called upon to crawl into a tight space the others can't get into, he will. Mostly he is there for Texas Chainsaw Massacre time. He revs his chainsaw plates eagerly. "Who going to be first use me saw things in pieces?" he says, dancing about. Carjack walks up to Breakdown and puts a hand on his shoulder, possibly startling the jittery Stunticon. "Don't worry. That just means you'll be dead before you know what hit you." Then having not helped at all he walks past, joining Contrail at the entrance of the cavern. "The shopping list is 'whatever the slag we find that's useful'; between the Hellbinder and NCC we're strained like a worn fanbelt on big ship supplies." With a click the headlights in his knee guards and some imbedded lenses in the sides of his chest come on, aiding in illuminating the cavern mouth. "This isn't a time to be picky, it's a time to get our slag back together before the Autobots capitalize on Trypticon's absence." Transforming, Cyclonus follows along the back.. casting a nervous glance behind them ever so often. Truth be told, space travel hasn't been the same since the jump incident.. and it'd probably be awhile before he's familiar with the mode of travel again. Bumping shoulders against Breakdown, the Decepticon tyrant strides past the Stunticon and into the creepy crawly cavern. "Is that your professional analysis, Carjack.. or your assumption?" he questions the notorious scavenger, peering into the dark. The Starfighter flips up, transforming into CYCLONUS! "Name's Scorn. Haven't been with the Cons too long, but I know my way around at least." Scorn shrugs with a smirk before shifting into her altmode and following them in and skittering ahead, four legs easily traversing the cave. She didn't have lights in either mode, but the added domes over her optics helped take in extra light for a sort of night-vision effect. Scorn crouches before shifting into her scythe-armed mantis mode. Breakdown isn't merely startled by Carjack, he launches himself off the asteroid once the other Decepticon's hand *approaches* him. Yes, Carjack's hand never actually touched Breakdown's shoulder. What should be really surprising is that, even while facing away and in an airless void, he knew that hand was approaching him! Must be a trade secret. "AAAHHHHHH!" Breakdown screams, and while he floats in space he yells back, "T-that's not very reassuring, and don't sneak up on me like that!" Fortunately for Breakdown, his mass is great enough for the asteroid's weak gravitational pulls him back down, coincidentally near the mouth of the cavern. It's then that he sees Contrail descending into that cavern and he hustles after Contrail, his cyber-teeth chattering. "W-what in the pit are you doing! We don't have any idea what's down there!" Cyclonus shoulders past him, and Breakdown's jaw falls open. Oh, no, he won't be able to see what's up ahead with all these Decepticons in front of him! "I... uh, C-C-Cyc--uh uh--" He begins to shake uncontrollably. "I--I--respectfully request p-p-p-p-p-p-p-point m--to be point!" Contrail's headlights are inconveniently placed on the tops of her shoulders, next to the jet intakes, but her taillights are near her knees, which is a bit more useful position. It takes seeing Carjack activating his knee-lights, though, for her to think of turning on her knee taillights - funny, given that she turned on her jet mode running lights without much thought at all. She keeps pushing ahead, optics on those derelicts, not looking back much and, perhaps coincidentally, not looking at Cyclonus much, either. Contrail smiles and replies back warmly to Scorn, "Ah, the Empire is glad to have your service, I am sure!" The cavern widens up on the inside. It's weirdly oppressively humid inside, especially given that the asteroid doesn't have much gravitational pull to keep an atmosphere, just enough to catch wayward Stunticons. The ground is a bit soft and spongy, like fake cork. However, there is a veritable fleet of derelict ships inside the cavern, receding off into the darkness! They look a bit banged up, and curiously, none of them are painted at all, but there should be parts a-plenty to salvage here. Chainsaw time! Slugfest dances around as he sees all the scrap there is to be cut into manageable sections. His chainsaw blades rev even faster, sounding ominously like 'rrrrrrrrrrrrun, roddyroddyroddyroddy, rrrrrrrrrrrrrun, roddyroddyroddyroddy'. Cyclonus doesn't comment on the warm welcoming of Scorn, using the time to study the enigmatic Contrail further. It would be rudimentary for him to order the personell files forwarded from Soundwave's impressive database, but such a gesture would be like cheating in a game of 'Guess Who'. For now, the game amuses the overlord. For now. Turning back to face Breakdown, Cyclonus responds. "Point? By all means, although.." he trails, looking over the dimly lit shuttles. "We are already here. Set up a perimeter with.. the Insecticon, full sweep and report." "If you wish for statistical intricacies of construction, sir, find me wherever the slag Scrapper ran off to with his merry band of -construct-icons." Carjack's rebuttal is kept curt and professional, considering he's talking to Galvatron's right hand mech. "I'm here to get materials because I'm tired of waiting for them to actually tell me what they nee -- By Straxus' axe, we've struck the mother lode down here." He reaches behind himself to pull his hydraulic cutter off his back, letting it latch to the underside of his arm as the power hosing uncoils. He looks down at it, then down at the tape running about their feet with his sawplates a buzzing. Looks over at Scorn and her bladed forelimbs. ".. Contrail, you probably need Slugfest's 'help' the most." Ignoring the strange feel of the ground as he stomps over it, the mechanic walks up to one of the derelicts to inspect the hull. "Huh. Looks like this one didn't get much farther than the shipyard, no paint or anything. Oh well. That just means no identifying marks for anyone else to trace back, ahahah." He follows it a bit farther to find a hatch, which he promptly starts to tear open with the armor-rending claw-weapon. "Naturally." Scorn agrees, and would be smiling right now if she could, but a shake of her insectoid backside would have to do for acknowledgement. With the site of scrap dead ahead she readies her scythe arms by letting a glowing plasma start to coat them, however once her feet touch the spongy floor at the cavern opening she stops and tilts her head quizzically. ".... I don't think we should be here." Head is craned back up, not moving despite Cyclonus' orders, her mandibles clicking nervously. "Sir... Maybe we should look on the surface instead..." Breakdown eagerly scurries ahead of Cyclonus on his go-ahead, plunging into the cavern. Upon touching the strange floor with his feet, he gives a sharp hiss of fear and disgust, and launches himself upwards. Either by accident or design, his trajectory takes him to the upended thruster section of a derelict, and he clings to to the rim of the engine, whipping out his concussion rifle as he scans around the entire cavern from his new vantage point. He snaps his gun towards a menacing shape--oh, wait, that's just Cyclonus's shadow. Then he snaps it towards another shape--oh, wait, that's Scorn's shadow. Life as Breakdown is terrifying. Life's about to get a bit more terrifying. Abruptly, the cavern mouth /closes/, those stalactites and stalagmites closing and locking together like teeth. Exactly like teeth. Seems they're stuck in a space whale. Kup had a story about that. Contrail's just about to follow Carjack's advice and grab Slugfest to help carve up some derelicts when their exit is suddenly blocked. She covers her face with her hands and cries out, "Slag it to slagging Straxus!" Seems Scorn was right. "Ut oh," Slugfest says, as the cavernous entrance proves to be a cavernous maw. "Now what we do? Saw through teefs?" The little cassetistegosaur rushes over to a tooth, intending to hack it apart. Carjack didn't mean it literally when he called that the cavern's mouth! He doesn't hear the sound of it closing over the noise of his high powered equipment... but the already dim light abruptly going out farther grabs his attention enough to shut it off and look up. "... didn't see that coming." He looks one way, then the other, making a quick check on the other Decepticons. "Gee, nice -asteroid- you picked up on, Contrail." Unlike conversing with the devil horned purple dude, he'll snark at the other Decepticons all he wants. "Explains why no one has ripped these babies apart before, though." Windshear has arrived. In particular, some of the teeth start to close on Cyclonus with alarming speed and force. Might not go too well for the Unicronian! Cyclonus swivels around, turning on his heel, and makes a dash towards the swiftly closing exit.. all in the span of an astrosecond. If one wasn't closely discerning the action with a careful optic, it could be percieved as an instant teleportation. Jamming his forearm into one of the stalagmites overhead, the Decepticon attack dog digs his booted foot into a point on the bottom. "You've led us into a trap, blasted newcomer!" Cyclonus seethes contempt at Contrail, fighting against the slowly closing maw. The force buckles his knee and forces his forearm back, slamming the 'roof' onto his shoulder plate. Redoubling his effort, Cyclonus draws substantial strength from his reserve and stands.. a haunched stand, but upright all the same. "Fools, quick.. while we still have a chance! EXIT!!" SSSSSSSNOOOOONKKK! And before you know it, Cyclonus is gone.. and the way to safety closed! Breakdown gasps as the maw shuts, sealing them in--if not for Cyclonus! Breakdown leaps across the cavern after him, but he's too late, as Cyclonus mysteriously disappears right before the Stunticon can reach him, and his path is blocked by the space whale's sharp teeth! "No no no!" Breakdown cries, hammering away at the teeth with his fists. "I KNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG BUT NOBODY LISTENED TO ME NOBODY EVER LISTENS TO ME!" OUTSIDE Covered in spacewhale snot, Cyclonus is wearing a scowl.. arms crossed over his chest armor, slowly drifting through endless space. Cyclonus has disconnected. The teeth are very thick and hard, Slugfest will find, if he tries to cut through them. He might be able to cut his way out, but it will probably take a few days of hard work. Among the derilicts, looks to be a rather fresh addition. It looks like an escape pod with hastilly tac welded and hot wired laser weapons set in various spots on the hull. In scribbled writing on the side, in Decepticon languge it states 'TheSwindleOne'. Smoke is wafting out of some places near the back from time to time and compared to the rest of the ships there it looked fresh and clean. Inside the Ship is one rather annoyed Seeker. Windshear checks some readings and looks out viewscreen, "Slagging whale.." he rasps in his freshly further damaged voice and then starts to do soem more checks on the board when something catches his optic. He watched for the next few moments as several Decepticons. some he knows, a couple he doesnt, trap themselves inside the creatures maw. Windshear watches Cyclonus leave and watches an unknown mech grab Slugfest to possibly hack through the teeth. With a vent of air through his intakes, he opens the hatch and looks toward the unknown mech, "I wouldnt do that." he rasps hoarsly, "You will only make is mad..." Space Mantis quickly skitters forward as the mouth of the space whale starts to close since she wasn't in the mood to be crunched. Wings fan out somewhat and flutter in irritation as she watches Cyclonus pretty much abandon them. "Feh, slag it all!" The mantis quickly turns to the rest, domed optics shifting a little from person to person. Now what? She was starving! And everyone looked so... tastey. Maybe she could pick off that jittery one first, no one would notice... Scorn quickly shakes her head of such thoughts. She couldn't eat her teammates, that'd be crazy.. maybe. Instead she'd busy herself by checking the wrecked ships, hoping to find some extra rations, or maybe something to get them out. But of course the unrecognizable voice of Windshear catches her attention, the femme letting out a feral skree as she crouches on all four legs and leaps up onto his ship, staring the mech down on the windshield with snapping mandibles. This girl was REALLY hungry. Breakdown swivels his head towards Scorn and glares at her suspiciously, as if somehow he knows what kinds of dark thoughts she's having. Maybe it's his sixth sense, or maybe Breakdown just doesn't trust anyone by default. He has something else to be wary of, however, once Windshear makes his presence known. He snaps his rifle towards him, and demands of the seeker. "How have you managed to survive in here!? There's no way out a-a-and we're going to be eaten and--ANSWER MY QUESTION!" Slugfest feels his chainsaw plates bouncing off the hard tooth he's trying to saw through. "No is going to work!" he says frustratedly, so he jumps down and runs towards the derelicts instead. He hears a familiar voice. It's Windshear! It's pretty dark in there now since the mouth was closed, so Sluggy can barely see a shadowy outline. "Windy! What doing here?" the little stegosaur says, running towards the Seeker pell-mell. Contrail pulls her hands away from her face. Okay, so they just lost Cyclonus, they're stuck inside... something, and Scorn's just found something or someone. Contrail had better get her head in the game and a handle on the situation! She calls out, "Scorn, report! What have you found? Slugfest, how is the cutting going? You getting anywhere, or do we need to look at other options? Breakdown, you're a scout, /look/ for a way out." Seems that Contrail, for a nobody convalescing on Charr under medical leave, is used to being listened to. Windshear looks at the Insecticon when she hops onto his poor shuttle, "Did I ask you do to that?" he rumbles and then his attention is diverted to Breakdown. "I havent been here long - and notice I had not left my shuttle. The trick is to stay in your shuttle... or in the case of all of you, get into a shuttle." he glances around the maw as he stands at the doorway of his ship. "Why are all of you in here anyway?" he asks and then sees Slugfest barreling toward him. "Slugfest?" he questions. Windshear looks at the Insecticon when she hops onto his poor shuttle, "Did I ask you do to that?" he rumbles and then his attention is diverted to Breakdown. "I havent been here long - and notice I had not left my shuttle. The trick is to stay in your shuttle... or in the case of all of you, get into a shuttle." he glances around the maw as he stands at the doorway of his ship. "Why are all of you in here anyway?" he asks and then sees Slugfest barreling toward him. "Slugfest?" he questions. Carjack dips his head a bit to rub his temples with his thumb and forefingers briefly. "Surrounded by idiots," he mutters to no one in particular. Then he transforms, illuminating a larger part of the 'cave' with his highbeams as he chugs across the spongy 'ground' see what everyone is in a huff over. "You dim plugs, that's not even a shuttle! That's just an escape pod some idiot has jury-rigged weapons t--Oh." The glare of his headlights flash off the seeker behind the pod's viewing port. "--Geez, stranded in middle of some space monster's gullet and we -still- trip over Seekers." Carjack hits the ground and folds into a rescue truck. Breakdown lowers a bit sheepishly as Contrail reprimands him into doing his job. "F-fine, I will! This... this thing has got to have some kind of, uh, orifices or something we can use to get back out... Maybe a nasal passage, or something..." He begins to scurry about the room haphazardly, occasionally bounding and floating around and generally providing a backdrop of paranoid madness. Windshear makes way for Slugfest to bound into his shuttle and then watches with amusement as Carjack transforms and drove on the whales.. tongue more of less. He listens to what the con says. "Notice the name, Carjack? I got swindled but this shuttle has saved me more than once... dont knock it... oh..." he pauses and with a smirk his voice gets a bit sarcastic, "Just so you know, you are driving on its tongue -- yes this is a Spacewhale but Im sure most of you figured it out. Its not going to like what you are doing Carjack." he glances around at everyone, "We need to get inside here and then the trick is to start a fire -- and a big one." Those paying attention to the ground will notice it is getting wetter. Some kind of liquid is being released by the spongy surface and the walls of the cavern, dripping down the sides to pool on the floor. The fluid mildly burns, to the touch - some kind of etching acid. Uh-oh. Might that be why all the derelicts here are stripped of their paint? And why all the crews seem to be missing? Slugfest eagerly runs into the shuttle. His little snout twitches as he smells the acrid odor of an acid. "Eeee!" he says, "No like that smell!" He cocks his head at Windshear. It no eat through shuttle, will it?" he says. Space Mantis is two seconds from slicing open the window until her optics catch the familiar purple insignia on Windshear, making her immediatly calm down and grumble in minor frustration. "Erf... It's a Con.. Windshear, right?" Half of that is to Contrail, the other to Windshear himself. At that moment she'd shift back into her more appealing robot mode, perched upon the nose of the shuttle as she peers in closer. "What are we going to light, exactly?" Antennas twitch again as she looks down to see fluids starting to surround them all, the femme hissing softly as she scurries over the top of the shuttle before entering. Standing up straight, Scorn shifts back into sexy robot mode. If he had a visible expression in vehicle mode, Carjack's would IMMEADIATELY brighten at the mention of fire. "Oh, now that is easy enou -- it's tongue? ICK!" Probably making matters worse is when his tires squeal against the squishy surface as he punchs the gas and speeds away from it, taking a few bumps over debris before finally careen up the wing of one of the ships sitting cockeye and finally stopping. "Ugh! This is disgusting. Inside something vagely organic... that's drooling acid, apparently," he adds, lights flashing off of some of the viscous pools of goo. Then after a moment or two of considering adds, "Hey, you think that acidic junk itself is flammable?" Contrail paces over to the SwindleOne and listens along to Windshear, who seems to have dealt with this whole space whale problem before. She looks down at the acid trickling across the ground and grimaces, adding, voice determined, "Look, let's salvage what we need, fast - we /will/ make this trip worthwhile. Stick to anti-gravs so this mess doesn't touch us. Once we have what we came for, we set that fire Windshear's talking about, and we blow this pop stand." That said, she hovers up a handspan above the rising acid. Windshear glances back at Slugfest, "Well... it will try.. take paint off... carrode it a bit but Spacewhales dont really understand that they cant digest metal well if at all. In that we have the advanta--" he pauses as he watches the Insecticon transform into a femme and make her way past him into his shuttle. He watches her and then looks back toward Carjack. "Not really, Carjack. It will emit a pretty noxious ball of vapor once it ignites. We will need to watch that our ventillation systems dont cycle it through out systems... acid burn from the inside out..." he catches the other cons comments and frowns slightly, "Catechism? Is that you?" Breakdown yelps as the moist environment abruptly becomes acidic, and he hops up in the air, and finally remembers to use his anti-grav at Contrail's prodding. "Oh, right. Anti-gravity." He continues to scan about the room, this time focusing on the roof of the space-whale's mouth. "Hrnn... gotta be... SOMETHING..." "... Right. Burning acid bad." Carjack snorts as he transforms back into robot mode, reactivating his hydrolic tool. The clawed end clamps shut and retracts into its body, and replaced by a bladed drill tip. "Right. Salvage whatever you can find, and keep an optic open for flammable stuff. You're all just lucky I'm a -fire- truck." Cackling a bit he plows the high powered drill into the hull of the ship he's standing on, boring a big enough hole to climb down inside. Both to do said scavanging and to get away from any stray acid mucus. Scorn stands in the open doorway of the shuttle, looking out to the rising sea of acidic spit. It reminded her so much of herself, but that was a different story. Instead Scorn unfolds her wings and flaps them at a high speed, leaving the shuttle momentarily to follow Contrail's orders. "Let's just take whatever hasn't touched the acid yet. We don't need it any worse than it is." Her right arm flips like a blade as it transforms into one of her altmode's sickles, going to work by quickly slicing through any large salvage like a hot knife through butter with that plasma coating. Slugfest floats up on his antigravs and propells himself towards some salvage. He grabs a corner of it in his mouth and starts pulling it towards the SwindleOne. As Carjack breaks into the ship a stale rotting odor of decayed organic meets his sensors. Littered around the deck are bones and oily stains where the flesh rotted and liquefied ages ago. Empty body fluid clothes hang around loosely to some of the bones and of course are stuck to the floor. It is dark and stuffy inside and looks like something straight out of a night of the living dead earth horror movie, only this is real and not props. Contrail doesn't immediately have a reaction to Windshear name-dropping, not like someone who actually answers to that name would. There's no recognition. After a long moment, she answers, "My name is Contrail. Just got off medical leave from Charr." That's not a lie. She moves to help Carjack with his salvage work, providing muscle to help tear down a ship. At the macabre dead organics, she smirks and comments, "Glad to be robots, eh, Doc? Such inferior species, these things." Up near the 'cavern' roof, Breakdown will find tightly-shut nasal cavities - space is a harsh environment, and the whale doesn't want to vent its internal gasses unless it has to. Of course, setting a huge fire inside, like Windshear suggested, might be enough to make the whale sneeze the Decepticons out. Windshear watches as Slugfest and Scorn depart the shuttle to do some salvage and ducks back inside to his nav board to run some scans on the ships around them. <<"Theres a good amount of fuel in the tanks of the one you just broke into, Carjack.">> he transmits through the radio. he keeps scanning and then adds. <<"Also a fair amount on the ship opposite it, behind the squarish shuttle that has I.S.S. Kelvin on it.">> He shifts his gaze over at Contrail then. <<"Understood.">> he replies. Hes never had a rebuild, never, always being a tetrajet but being reformatted seems fairly common and forgetting what they were before seems to go with it. He does find a match on the vocie pattern though in his files but says nothing further. Breakdown approaches this latest puzzle as one might expect a Decepticon to--violence! "OPEN UP!" he screams at the nasal passage. "LET US THROUGH!!!" He then begins punching his fists at the closed nasal cavity, as if that might force it open. Failing that, he'll try to shove his hand up in there. "Inferior and disgusting, but in this case potentially useful!" Carjack drops to one knee, having been witness to enough death man and machine alike to be unbothered by the remains. It kind of comes with the job. He grabs a few of the less sticky corpses, shaking the bones out of the scraps of clothing, then stuffing the greasy fabric into one of his shoulder compartments. "These and some fuel would burn nicely... excellent. Thanks Windshear." He starts truding in that direction, grabbing at various dangling cables and other broken mechanics as they pass, stuffing away anything he manages to pull loose. He's not that picky, seeing as he's made his living out of making useful parts from useless things. Contrail may or may not apply. He's not entirely decided on how useless she may of been before hand. But certainly more useful now! Globby space whale mucus oozes at Breakdown. What did he expect, punching a sinus? Contrail remembers who she was. If Carjack's telling the truth, he wasn't even trying to change her name... or install those booster rockets, for that matter, but that new transformation cog and the software that goes with it has messed with her a BIOS a bit, and she can't truthfully say that she's quite the same anymore. Unperturbed by Carjack's grisly treatment of mortal remains, she offers to Carjack, "I do have some fuses, detcord, and timers, if we want to make this more of a controlled detonation," and she grabs pieces of this and that, stuffing it into an energy net slung over one shoulder. Meanwhile, the acid steadily keeps rising. It's about knee-level on a normal Decepticon now. Scorn manages to bring as much salvage she can carry back to the shuttle, doing this several times with Slugfest while Contrail and Carjack search for the fuel and Breakdown gets dripped on. Nasty. "When this is over I'm taking a long wash and hitting the bar. I need a strong drink after this." Windshear is standing back at the doorway to the SwindleOne. He looks around at where the ships are positioned in ralation to where his is at, and where the mouth is. "Hey..." he rasps and then coughs a few times. The smell from the acid is agravating his voice synth. "...Ok..look, we have to get the fuel behind us and us closer to the mouth..." he weezes nonchalantly and then ignites his antigravs and hovers up a bit. Then he notices Breakdown..dripping. "You look like a booger, Breakdown.." he smirks and shifts around to look at his shuttle. Then he transforms and extends the claw like grapples only seen in one G1 episode and tries to get a good hold of the SwindleOne in an attempt to drag it more toward the mouth opening. "Its not going to like this either." he states flatly. "So be ready for anything..." Carjack eventually finds the fuel cells, and after another moment or two finds one that does indeed still have fuel in it that hasn't been damaged or leaked out by the ship's demise within the space-whale's mouth. "This should do." He detatchs a couple of cables and hoses, plugging up the connections so nothing drips out. Then hoists it onto his shoulders and starts heading back towards their entrance. "An outright explosion may do more harm than good, if it sets off the acid saliva or causes a chain reaction amonst the ships... however, if you've got some stuff that'll increase the amount of smoke produced to increase aggrivation would be good." He ignites his anti-gravs to lift out of the hole. And just glares at the Seeker trying to pull his 'shuttle' along. "Hey, you're a jet, not a tow truck." Then eyes the heap of pilfered goods Scorn is dumping in it. ".. Looks like the femme found some nice stuff though." Breakdown gets goop all over him, but that merely causes him to wail more loudly and incoherently. "AAHHH let us out for the love of Primus!" he shrieks. Then he has an idea. Maybe punching is the wrong approach! Maybe he could try... tickling? He does just that, tickling at the nasal passage with a finger. "Hahaha, come on, s-sneeze or something, or open up... OR SOMETHING..." Pretty boy Windshear transforms into a Cybertronian pyramid/Tetrajet. Slugfest flies up to where Windshear is pulling at the shuttle, after having deposited some salvage into the shuttle itself. He sets his little mouth onto the front part of one of Windshear's wings and starts pulling backwards, to help move the shuttle. Olive and Sand colored Cybertronian Tetrajet is in the air not moving at all as hes tugging on his shuttle. Of course the more he tugs the harder it gets because SCorn keeps dumping stuff into it. "well." he says to Carjack then. "Show me what a tow truck can do then..." The tickle Breakdown gives doesnt go unnoticed by the Spacewhale and suddenly the tongue lifts up toward the roof of the mouth out of reflex and it lifts its head up.... Windshear (Windy) pages: well.. I had most of that saved from the other pose I was saving... errr hope that wasnt too much but then again... hehe I can imagine the possible poses now following hehe Contrail follows Carjack out, hovering, full net of salvage slung over one shoulder. She muses aloud, "Dirty burn? Yeah, I have something for that in my kit, just give me a-" and then the whole 'room' shakes as the space whale reacts to the tickling violently, by wriggling around in its cavern in the asteroid. Contrail struggles to not fall out the air and into the now hip-deep acid. Better pull that shuttle to the entrance fast, before it is totally submerged! "Riiight, like I'm gonna drive in that crud down there." Especially when the beast starts squirming around, yeah, he's gonna stay floating in the air. "Breakdown, new femme, give him a hand there while I get the bonfire ready." Finding a spot on top of one of the worse off looking wrecks that's roughly below those contracted sinuses, Carjack sets down the fuel cell. Then starts pulling the greasy flammables out and tossing them around it. "Yeah, dirty burn. Thicker the better in this case." Scorn finishes loading up the last of the still usable materials, smirking at Carjack's comment as she flutters over to the two to circle them a moment, "Nothing but the best. A femme needs standards in good craftmanship, you know." She's about to move over to help Windshear move the shuttle before the scenery starts to... tilt? "Uhh, why is everything moving..?" Scorn gazes up curiously to spot Breakdown tickling the whale, "Hey! Breakdown, knock it off!" She huffs softly before nodding to Carjack's order, quickly flying to Windshear and grabbing a line to help pull. Breakdown yelps as his tickling causes the space whale's tongue to rise up! "Uh--woah, okay, stop, I'll stop! I'm sorry! Ahh!" Realizing his actions are having unintended consequences, Breakdown floats over to the cable hooked up to the SwindleOne and, as Carjack asked him to, he pulls on it, trying to help Windshear tow the shuttle. Contrail lands lightly next to Carjack atop the shuttle-island, glaring at the rising acid, as if that will do any good. She sorts through her demolition kit, looking for just what she needs and finds - ah-hah. Contrail adds a few paper-wrapped packages to the smoldering mess that Not-Smolder has created, assuring, "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing with explosives. Haven't blown myself up since... er, the last time." She rubs the back of her helmet and looks away. Slugfest keeps tugging at Windshear's wing! "Nrrrf! Comon!" he says, with his mouth full of Seeker tetrajet wing. His tail wags irritably as he tries pulling harder. Olive and Sand colored Cybertronian Tetrajet compensates for the movement with his thrusters and antigravs and manages to stay fairly level until the mouth/room settles down. With other ptiching in to help him, the Seeker and the rest slowly begin moving the shuttle toward the mouth opening. "Its pretty tight in my shuttle so once we are set we are going to have to cram ourselves in any way possible and then just hang on." Well it's a good thing Slugfest can turn into a tiny tape and that Breakdown, Scorn and Carjack are only 'gestalt limb' sized! The Seeker and the Triplechanger may have to crowd a bit though. Once everything is set in place, Carjack pulls the plugs on the tank so the fuel starts spilling out onto the rest of the collected materials, then waves Contrail towards the SwindleOne. "Take your loot and get over there with the others. I just need a moment to light this baby up!" Taking a few steps back he transforms again, hatch in the back opening and his vehicle mode turret coming out of it. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" The flame gun spews some fiery sparks at the greasy corpse rags. Which he's run laid out like a 'fuse' so the entire thing doesn't go up at once, leaving the flames to follow the path as he transforms and flies quickly towards the 'shuttle' pod. "Get in and hang on tight!" Breakdown releases the cable once Carjack gives the word, and uses his anti-gravs to fling himself at the pod. "Oh, Primus, we're all gonna die, we're all gonna die!" he wails as he stuffs inside, eventually winding up face-first on the floor. Olive and Sand colored Cybertronian Tetrajet detaches his cables and spins around for Slugfest. He doesnt see him and then realizes as he spun around the dinocon spun around as well since he was hanging onto one of his wings. the Seeker suddenly opens his canopy. "TRANSFORM AND GET IN!" he yells and waits only long enough for the cassettecon to jump in and then hes transforming and diving into his shuttle. Contrail smirks and transforms to space jet mode, still hovering,, noting, "I'm an all-terrain soldier - I can fly /myself/ out." More room in the tiny SwindleOne for everyone else! As the fuel cell goes up in flames, producing irritating smoke, the whole inside of the great space whale starts shaking, the sinuses up above twitching. Everything's shaking and rattling hard, as the smoke gets thicker... Flipping into a modified F-35B Lightning II, the sky is not the limit. Cybertronian Tetra jet transforms into the pretty boy Decepticon, Windshear. Scorn manages to pull the shuttle into just the right spot with the help of the others, the femme smiling at the job well done. "Let's hope this is enough salvage. I sure as hell don't want to come back here." She comments while flying back inside and tucking her wings neatly behind her as she stoops over to dredge up Breakdown from the floor and plop him in a seat, promptly sitting in his lap after with a grin as she coos, "Calm down, you. We'll be out of here soon enough in one piece." Carjack squeezes in with the others. He doesn't really take up a lot of room, once he's folded his oddly shaped shoulders closer to his body. The techie probably has a lot of practice squeezing into small spaces. One might think Breakdown would be grateful to be helped up by Scorn, but you have to look at it from the point-of-view of a paranoid. Once Scorn is sitting in his lap, the Stunticon gives her this big, wide-eyed stare, the sort that one might give a rabid animal that was growling at them. It seems that he fully expects Scorn to bite his head off for dinner! "I... I'm on to you!" he whispers harshly at her. Slugfest does indeed transform as he hops into Windshear's cockpit. "EEEEE!" he exclaims. It may be a tight squeeze, but not so much for him. The lil stegosaurus folds down into an 80's cassette tape. Windshear piles into the shuttle. Now heres the problem; Seekers have real estate for 'wide shoulders' in a sense with their wings. And its highly probably others are getting cuffed and slapped with his wings as he turns to close the loading door and brace himself for whats about to happen. He cant help but smirk. "This is about to get.. fun.." is all he says. Slugfest says, "Windy what doing?" Windshear says, "Bracing myself for when this whale sneezes..." Slugfest says, "eeeee!" With a sudden contraction of muscles, the whale sneezes mightily, having been given the worst case of heart burn in its life! The mouth and nostrils both open, but which way will the shuttle and Contrail go out? Tune in, after a brief break from our sponsors! GAME: Contrail rolls a (100)-sided die: ROLL: Contrail rolled a 60 ROLL: Windshear rolled a 3 NEW FOR THE TRANSFORMERS "It's spaz attack Breakdown, now with jittering action!" A kid presses a button on Breakdown toy, and it begins shaking and screaming. "FROM HASBRO" The SwindleOne is catapolted out of the mouth of the Spacewhale and is tumbling end over end through space. Where it stops no body knows and whether everyone inside is where they were originally, when it stops no body knows either. It wouldn't be a big surprise if Scorn DID bite his head off. After all, she still hadn't eaten. "Oh? But I'm not doing anything." She grins wide, showing those sharp teeth as she leans in and thumbs his red chin playfully, obviously getting a kick out of scaring him. "Better hold on, boys. Gonna be a bumpy ride!" The femme chuckles heartily before the shuttle jolts roughly and is shot out into space, Scorn ending up somewhere in a corner since she didn't have a seatbelt on. F-35B Lightning II is blown out the nose and completely gunked over in disgusting space whale mucus. Scorn thinks she needs a shower? Scorn does not yet know the true meaning of needing a shower. Contrail does. She wishes she didn't. Maybe Contrail can convince Carjack to just delete the memory sectors for today, yeah... Contrail says, "...urgh. Uhm. Everyone else get out?" Slugfest says, "Me in windy! Think got out..." Windshear replies a bit foggy, "I dunno.. wheres Contrail?" Breakdown shakes, teeth clenched tightly, as his chin gets thumbed and the female grins at him. He knew it! HE KNEW IT! Once she's involuntarily launched off of him, though, Breakdown actually lets out a sigh of relief, even in spite of the fact that the pod is jolted so roughly and being launched who-knows-where. And how did Breakdown avoid getting tossed around the pod? Simple--he was holding on to his seat. Literally. Carjack says, "I believe she took an ... alternate route." Breakdown says, "You mean... she's dead!?" Carjack would laugh at Breakdown's plight if it wasn't for getting rattled around at the chaotic movements of the pod.... somehow he ends up in the exact same spot... except upside down on his shoulders. ".. Ugh. Note to self: CONTRAIL IS A HORRIBLE NAVIGATOR." Windshear hangs on for dear life to the doorframe of the boarding shute and just rides this out. Contrail says, "Yeah, let's just call it that. An alternate route. Not dead." Carjack says, "I bet it was snot pleasant" Windshear says, "Theres only one other way out of a Spacewhales mouth if its not the mou---eeewww" Scorn says, "At least it wasn't the third option." Windshear says, "That is just...wrong...." Contrail says, "Hah hah, you're hilarious, Doc. Not." Carjack says, "Yeah, be glad we made it sneeze, and not suffer gastral contractions." Scorn says, "Windshear, try and get a hold of the shuttle. We don't need to hit something else at this speed." Windshear mutters, "Im not even going to answer that..." Breakdown says, "Oh, no--she's right! Cyclonus is still out there! We're gonna hit him!" Breakdown says, "He'll have us slagged!" Contrail says, "Space is /huge/. No, bigger than that. It is extremely unlikely that we'll hit Cyclonus." Breakdown whimpers. Slugfest is still in Windshear's cockpit, regardless of the mode the Seeker is currently in. So he's mostly oblivious to all the sights and smells, though he can still hear some of what's going on. Contrail says, "The prudent course of action is to get our tailfins... and trunks, I guess, and whatever it is dinosaurs and insects have /back/ to base, get this acid and other... stuff showered off, and tally our salvage." Windshear releaess the doorframe once the shuttle settles down and then heading to the pilots chair over under through whoevers in his way he along the way. He plops down and works for a few moments to ge the shuttle back under control. Then after a quick view of the vessels status he turns it back toward where they came from and starts heading back, looking for Contrail and anything else for that matter. Windshear says, "Than I take it you do not need us to assist you in any way?" F-35B Lightning II eventually gets herself righted and flies over to escort the brave little SwindleOne. Anyone looking out a porthole will see that she's... yeah, that's just gross. Hopefully it'll burn off in re-entry? Slugfest thumps inside Windshear's chest canopy. "Can come out nao?" he asks. Breakdown is content to remain in his chair and not help anyone or do anything. He slumps in his seat a bit, taking a rare moment to relax. Carjack nudges Windshear, since its his shuttle, he's the one flying it right? "The shuttle we originally landed in is on the vernal side of the asteroid that thing is inside of. Land over there and we'll dump the cargo in it for the trip home instead." Carjack says, "And Contrail needs a pressure wash BEFORE SHE GOES INSIDE ANY BASE" Windshear notices Contrail as he looks out of the viewscreen and just stares for a moment. The aerolons on his wings twitch a bit for a few seconds and then he feels a thump from inside his chest. "Huh?" he looks down, "No, no room, Sluggy." He sets some controls and then guides the SwindleOne to fall behind Contrail to head back to base. Then he reaches over across Breakdown and hits some controls on that console, not paying attention to where his wing is in relation to the Stuncticon. Contrail asks, "How am I supposed to get a pressure wash OUTSIDE the base?" Seems she hasn't really thought of carwashes as something that apply to her. Scorn finally rights herself after being crumpled in the corner, the femme rubbing her head and flexing her limbs to make sure nothing was damaged. "Let's get back quick before we choke. Carjack smells like dead organics, and that scrap stinks like the space whale, ugh." Her face wrinkles in disgust. Even though Scorn's used to the smell of death, the close quarters and added whale stink were making it much worse for her. Windshear mms for a moment, "Yea you do look pretty slimed there, Contrail. Maybe Astrotrain can hose you down? Contrail overthinks this, "I mean, I could dump myself in an ocean and find a high pressure trench..." Windshear resists a shutter, "Dump yourself in the ocean?" and hes thinking 'better you then me' on that. "Well that would be the quickest way, yea." Ah, you thought Breakdown let his guard down, did you? Think again! "Nnngh!" Breakdown wriggles under the wing before it hits his head, and gets scrunched down on one knee, back pressed against the wall and head tilted to one side. "W-watch what you're doing!" Windshear mms and looks over his wing. "Why dont you watch where Im going, Breakdown?" he smirks a bit and then straightens back up in his seat and settles down to just piloting his 'ship' and following Contrail. Windshear is just staring at the trail of goo Contrail is leaving in space and idely imagining all that slime getting into seams and stuff... Hes really grossing himself out here and its a few moments before he notices hes been nudged and someones talking to him. Windy looks over, "Huh? Another shuttle? Why didnt you tell me this sooner?" he hears and sees soem goo splate on the viewscreen and raises an optic ridge. "Where did you say ti was again, Carjack?" Hes so ready to dock his poor ship and fly something a bit better right now. Breakdown glares at Windshear's back. "Hey, pal, I KNOW people, y-you don't wanna mess with me!" Yes, the life of a Stunticon is one of mutual enmity, but they generally look out for each other at the expense of everyone else. Usually. "All grossness gone yet?" Slugfest wonders. He wiggles again inside Windshear. Scorn grumbles softly as she tries to squeeze her way to a slightly bigger location since the space between Carjack and Breakdown wasn't her cup-of-tea at the moment. Usually mechs had to buy her a drink before getting like this, bah. "How much longer until we get back?" F-35B Lightning II is still totally gross as she follows the SwindleOne back to the shuttle they took at the start of this adventure. She just hovers near it, knowing that she won't be allowed inside while this 'contaminated'. Windshear pulls the SwindleOne up alongside the bigger and more roomy unwhaleslobbered other shuttle and looks back. "Lets bail." he says and then hits the loading doors controls. He will stay of course till everyone is out and then dock his ship in the cargo bay of that shuttle and board it. He glances at his canopy. "Patiance, Slugfest. I will let you out soon." Carjack clamors around a bit to finally crawl out of the pod. Then grabs part of the stuff that Scorn had shoved into it as well. "At least we came back with some goods for all that trouble," he grumbles as he carries it over to the larger transport shuttle. Scorn climbs out after Carjack with her own share of the load, packing it onto the other ship safely and securely before heading into the bridge area, gladly taking a seat since there was enough room now. "Ah, finally we're not all up on each other and can move around." Breakdown emerges with some random loot in his hands, consisting of whatever the others didn't take with them. "Yeah, more room," he mutters, glaring at Scorn. He doesn't take a seat in the ship so much as he finds a dark corner and wedges himself into it. The Slugster isn't that patient, but he stays still inside Windshear's canopy anyway. "Okay!" he says. After all he's a little cassette and doesn't mind tight cramped places. Though he does like to get out and run around when he's hyper. Windshear docks his poor beat up shuttle once everyone is out and taken the cargo wtih them. Then after he parks it and shuts it down he exits. He heads to the bridge and the pilots chair and along the way lets Slugfest out of his cockpit. "Ok, more room, better ride back to base." he says and then sits down and starts running checks on the shuttle to unpark it so to speak and head back to wherever they want the parts. He glances at Constrail through the viewscreen and shes still all snotted up. He shutters slightly and then starts moving the shuttle. Windshear says, "Where to, Contrail? Earth or Cybertron?" Scorn simply gives Breakdown that toothy grin with an added wink as she settles back in her chair. Slugfest squirms out of Windshear's canopy, transforms, and starts running around. Contrail says, "Ask Carjack where the Hellbender's dry-docked - but not on this channel, in person, and take it there." Carjack peers past the load of stuff he's storing away, having already heard the radio. "Hold on a moment." Shifts his load to one arm so he can dig out a datacard and toss it to Windshear. "That's got the drydock location on it. Just plug it into the nav-com." Windshear says, "Understood." Carjack says, "Got it covered." Windshear turns and catches the datapad then jacks it into the nav board and lets it download the location. Then he sets course for that and tosses the datapad back at Carjack. F-35B Lightning II settles in to just follow the shuttle and make sure nothing attacks it on the way back. The sooner they're there, wherever there is, the better, because she can get that pressure wash then!